Colorado law stopped using the word custody more than two decades ago, and the change is more than vocabulary. Courts allocate parental responsibilities: a parenting time schedule and decision-making authority, each decided separately under the best interests of the child.

We build parenting plans that hold up in the real world, and we litigate firmly when agreement is not possible. Because overnight counts feed directly into Colorado’s child support formula, and safety concerns can call for a civil protection order, we plan the whole board rather than one square.

How we help

• Parenting plans that address weekly schedules, holidays, vacations, travel, and exchanges
• Decision-making responsibility for education, health care, religion, and other major issues
• Best-interests advocacy in contested hearings, including work with child and family investigators and parental responsibilities evaluators
• Cases involving unmarried parents, including establishing parentage
• Relocation disputes when one parent wants to move with the children
• Stepparent, grandparent, and nonparent issues that intersect with an allocation case

Custody Is Called Allocation of Parental Responsibilities in Colorado

Colorado statutes replaced the word custody with allocation of parental responsibilities (APR), which covers two separate things: parenting time and decision-making responsibility.

• Parenting time is the schedule of when the child is with each parent; decision-making responsibility is the authority over major decisions like education, health care, and religious upbringing.
• The two can be allocated differently: parents can share joint decision-making even when the parenting time schedule is not equal, and vice versa.
• Married parents address APR inside a divorce or legal separation; unmarried parents file a standalone APR petition in district court.
• Using the correct terminology matters in filings and in court, and it reflects Colorado's policy focus on responsibilities toward children rather than ownership-style custody labels.

The Best Interests Standard Under C.R.S. 14-10-124

Every parenting time decision is governed by the best interests of the child, with paramount consideration given to the child's safety and physical, mental, and emotional needs.

• Statutory factors include the parents' wishes, the child's wishes if mature enough to express independent preferences, the child's relationships and adjustment to home, school, and community, and the mental and physical health of everyone involved.
• Courts weigh each parent's ability to encourage the child's relationship with the other parent, past patterns of involvement, and the physical distance between homes.
• Judges may not presume either parent is better suited because of gender, and conduct that does not affect the parent-child relationship is not considered.
• Credible evidence of domestic violence or child abuse changes the analysis, particularly for joint decision-making, which courts generally will not order over the objection of a victimized parent.

Parenting Time Schedules and Parenting Plans

Metro courts expect a detailed parenting plan covering the regular schedule, holidays and school breaks, exchanges, travel, communication, and how future disputes will be resolved.

• Common Colorado schedules include alternating weeks, 5-2-2-5 rotations, and school-year/summer splits; the right fit depends on the child's age, school location, and the parents' work realities.
• There is no statutory presumption of equal time, but many metro judges look for schedules that give children substantial time with both parents when that serves their best interests.
• Overnight counts matter beyond the schedule itself because they feed directly into the child support calculation under C.R.S. 14-10-115.
• If parents cannot agree, the court imposes a plan after a hearing, so a well-supported proposal grounded in the statutory factors carries real weight.

Decision-Making Responsibility: Joint or Sole

Major decisions typically covered are education, non-emergency medical care, religion, and often extracurricular activities; day-to-day decisions belong to whichever parent has the child at the time.

• Courts consider whether the parents can cooperate and make decisions jointly, based on credible evidence of their past pattern of involvement.
• Decision-making can be split by category, for example joint on education but sole on medical, when that fits the family's history.
• A history of domestic violence weighs heavily against joint decision-making under C.R.S. 14-10-124.
• Deadlock provisions, such as mediation before either parent may return to court, are common features of Denver metro parenting plans.

When Experts Get Involved: CFIs and PREs

A Child and Family Investigator (CFI) is a court-appointed neutral who investigates and reports on the child's best interests, with fees capped by chief justice directive.

• A Parental Responsibilities Evaluator (PRE) under C.R.S. 14-10-127 conducts a deeper evaluation, often with psychological testing, and is typically reserved for complex or high-conflict cases.
• Either parent can request an appointment, or the court can order one on its own; the report becomes significant evidence at hearing, though judges are not bound by it.
• How you present to a CFI or PRE matters: consistency, child focus, and documentation tend to be more persuasive than criticism of the other parent.
• Parties can challenge a report through cross-examination or, in appropriate cases, by seeking a second evaluation.

Relocation and Emergency Parenting Issues

A parent who wants to move with the child far enough to change the child's geographic ties must provide notice, and contested relocations are decided under the factors in C.R.S. 14-10-129, including the reasons for and against the move and the impact on the child.

• Relocation disputes get docket priority in Colorado, but they remain among the hardest parenting cases to predict.
• If a child is in imminent physical or emotional danger, a parent can file a motion to restrict parenting time under C.R.S. 14-10-129(4), which requires a hearing within 14 days.
• Emergency motions are powerful and heavily scrutinized; filing one without solid grounds can damage credibility with the court.
• Grandparents and certain nonparents have limited avenues to seek parenting time or APR in defined circumstances, which deserve case-specific advice.

Local courts and where to file

APR cases are heard in the district courts for Denver (2nd JD), Arapahoe County (18th JD, Centennial), Douglas County (23rd JD, Castle Rock), Adams and Broomfield (17th JD), and Jefferson County (1st JD, Golden). Each district maintains its own roster of Child and Family Investigators and its own parent education requirements, and magistrates frequently handle early stages of parenting cases in the metro courts.

Last updated August 2026.